1968 Why I Left (only joking) .......................................

I sometimes jokingly claim that there were two reasons I left England and came to Canada.

1. The end of steam trains.
2. The English money went decimal.

Neither is really true I suppose. My childhood passion for steam trains had faded as I'd left boyhood and wouldn't really return until the 80s. But 'steam' was sliding into history when we emmigrated. In 1967 the last steam trains ran on my beloved Southern. In 1968 it ended altogether. An era was gone.

As for the money, the U.K. went over to decimal currency in 1971. I had to look that up - later than I thought. ....... Incidently I'm keeping the "looking up" to a minimum. Partly laziness and partly because this blog is supposed to be all about memory. .........

As for that "old" money that confused foreign soldiers in two wars and tourists in general, it was remarkable in its variety and complexity. In "my time" there were nine diferent coins in circulation:

1/4p The farthing, small and copper, worth a quarter of a penny, a wren on the back. Starting
to go out of circulation by the fifties I think.
1/2p The halfpenny, pronounced haypenny, copper with Drake's Golden Hind? on the back.
1p The penny, plural: pence, copper, big, Britannia on the back, 12 =shilling, 240 = £1.
3p The three penny piece/thrupenny bit, twelve sided,a sort of gold coloured, clover? on the
back.
3p The silver 'thrupenny' bit or silver joey, they were small and getting rare in my childhood.
6p The sixpence or tanner, smallest common silver coin.
1/- The shilling or bob, silver, twenty to the pound.
2/- The florin or two shilling piece or two bob bit, silver.
2/6 The half-crown or half a dollar(!), silver.

5/- The crown had gone by my childhood although they were occasionally minted as memorial pieces, they were issued for example at Churchill's death.

The guinea, that mysterious coin in gold worth £1/1/0, i.e one pound one shilling. A sort of snob currency in my day. Fur coats were priced in guineas and horse races, i.e. "The Thousand Guinea Stakes". The coin was 'never seen' the word being merely a "price tag", most odd.

10/- There was a ten shilling note (or ten bob note or half a nicker) worth of course, half a pound,
£1 The pound note or quid. I was getting twenty per week of those when I emmigrated = $48
£5 Five pound notes (or fiver) too, looking much like the pound note. Earlier there had been five pound notes printed on crackly white paper with writing in glossy black script which stood proud of the paper, lovely things - I never saw many of those!

I have a small collection of the 'old' money in a tin in the railway room, nice to poke through it and remember sometimes.

Now things are simpler over 'ome. It's all pounds and new pence. The new halfpenny has gone, its value shrunk and the new penny will soon follow I think.
There is a copper 2p piece still, which used to serve as a dollar in Halifax's parking meters! There are 5p and 10p and 20p pieces all in silver. £1 and £2 coins and bank notes for higher values. ............................ but it ain't the same sigh! (And the Euro is coming!!! Groan!)